From funk to pop to country, Guardian writers pick their favourite songs of the year that seem to have passed most listeners by
Picture the scene: you’re floating around your Frank Lloyd Wright bungalow a little lovelorn, but not so lovelorn that you can’t shuffle out a little two-step to the stereo and make yourself a cocktail. Here’s the world suggested by the bone-dry funk of Holy Hell, the lead single from the second album by Eddie Chacon. You might know him as one half of 90s duo Charles and Eddie (of Would I Lie to You? fame). After the band split in 1997 and Charles Pettigrew died in 2001, Chacon entered a wilderness period, wrestling with his ego and motivation for making
music before stopping altogether. After meeting pianist and producer John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Blood Orange, Harry Styles), Chacon made the remarkable comeback album Pleasure, Joy and Happiness in 2020. Next year sees an equally fantastic follow-up, heralded by a song so addictive it put the rest of my Spotify Unwrapped in the shade. The sublime drums snap like turtles, the synths bubble as languidly as lava lamp orbs; Chacon’s ghostly croon rises to a brushed-velvet falsetto, just ready to go up in flames as he entreats a lover to choose between pleasure and pain. Laura Snapes